Whites Playing Other Races
i agree. Jeanne Crain played a lightskinned black woman in the movie,"Pinky". Paul Muni, Warner Olandt played Chinese/Mexicans.

Great review and description of this movie, Julia. This was from my parents time, well, when they were quite young anyway. The quality of the picture, the visual clarity that is, is very good for films from this time period. As with most detective pictures, there is a slight amount of disbelief to suspend, but not as much as most modern films. The "high tech" equipment you alluded to surprised me too, since this film is from 1933. See Boris Karloff playing a Chinese man doesn't bother me, though I realize it is not PC today. In that time period this was not unusual, and I am sure Karloff was not a bigot. Modern actors often play people from other countries and cultures, e.g., Americans playing Australians, Germans, Russians, or Brits, etc. For Causcasian actors playing Asian characters, it was looked upon about the same back then.
Some of the entertaining bits for me about this film and others like it, are the insights into the culture, the laws, and customs which were so different back then.
Also I like the plain camera work. If 2 characters scuffle for example, they actually scuffle a little bit. Often today's movies provide the 'action' through dizzy camera work.